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          Special event generated by the 250th anniversary of the Accademia dei Georgofil

Florence, June 4th, 2003
at the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Accademia dei Georgofili.

A summary

This afternoon session was introduced by two lectures : one by Jean-Marc BOUSSARD, on "Agricultural, food and environmental research prospects", the second one by Luigi CAVAZZA on "Agriculture and environment : two words which find dialogue difficult". Both papers may be download from the Accademia dei Georgofili web site.

In the discussion which followed, participant agreed that the role of academies in a changing world was to be redefined, especially in the case of academies of agriculture. Food safety and environment are obvious priorities, but we need also an efficient and productive agriculture. Obviously also, some sort of cooperation between public and private research must be sought for, because these different modes of funding do not produce the same sort of outcome. In addition, the globalisation of research (among other things) induces to develop strategies at a regional (and not only national) level.

A debate occurred regarding the position of academies with regard to research management. In some countries (for instance, France or Italy) academies have no research management responsibilities. In other countries (for instance, in Russia) on the contrary, they are deeply involved. Of course, in any institutional matter, the same problem may have different solutions, and it may happen that none of them be superior to other. Yet, in any case, exchange of experiences are fruitful. This is the more important as both systems are faced with new challenges, among which the most important is perhaps the demand of the public for more safety, while the increasing power of scientists produces at the same time more possibilities to avoid disasters, and more information to imagine potential disasters which would have been ignored otherwise.